Big Business Break

Daveybloke, the Cuddly Conservative, has signalled what the Guardian calls a "break with big business" in the fashion one would expect; namely by excoriating the Government for being insufficiently sycophantic towards big business. Daveybloke said that his party's approach in the nineties "slightly was to cross out the headline on a CBI press release and put in 'Conservative party'", but that the approach now should be slightly not. In the light of the various fiascos afflicting our banking, transport, health and energy systems, "economic liberalism alone is not enough". Leaving big business alone to get itself out of the mess it has got us all into would be an act of catastrophic irresponsibility towards almost everyone who matters. Hence, Daveybloke observed, a significant part of New Labour's failure has been "excessive bureaucratic intervention ... too much tax, too much regulation, too little understanding of what our businesses need". Evidently the executive bonuses are still too low. However, "in another sense, Labour's economic failure has been one of inaction".

As an example, Daveybloke "mentioned a global IT company thinking of investing in Britain or Ireland. The British sent the company a brochure. The Irish sent them a delegation that made a presentation" with the result that the company set up their office in Ireland. It is not immediately clear whether this is a case of the Government having intervened too little or too much; but it certainly shows the importance Daveybloke attaches to matters of presentation. As further proof of his priorities, Daveybloke stated that "People are looking to their government for one simple thing: reassurance", since actual competence is clearly off the agenda. The Daveybloke solution: "While we must be aware of the limitations of government, we should never be limited in our aspirations for government." It is certainly reassuring to see Daveybloke once more rising above the soundbite culture. Surprisingly, Daveybloke also declared himself in favour of economic dynamism and against do-nothing dithering and economic incompetence; and rather than "old-fashioned subsidies for hand-picked favourites", Daveybloke is inclined to prefer "the kind of plan we need to help Britain ride out the global downturn and build the foundations for future economic success". Big business must be shaking in its shoes.